Wednesday, 24 January 2018

Doin's in the rain

I set off today with Great Expectations of checking out a few birds at Kelly's Swamp and then giving thew BBQ Stakes a bit of action.

On getting to Kelly's, as soon as I got into Ardea Hide I saw a Royal Spoonbill.

Here is a close-up showing the plumes well, and the patch of yellow skin above the eye.

A little later I found a second bird of this species visible from Cygnus hide. I was hoping to use this as Bird of the Day - which is still going despite the death of the Coordinator and Webmeister late last year. However I'd already used the species!! Fortunately there were 3 other good species on hand in Red-kneed Dotterel; Black-fronted Dotterel and Freckled Duck. The last named got the award.

Unfortunately the weather was pretty murky and raining so I couldn't get a decent photo of any of them at 125m range. Unfortunately I heft my digiscoping adapter, which would have done the business, at home.

When I say rain, I mean rain.

I decided that I'd pass on the Stakes and spend a little more time at Kellys. Needless to say, the rain stopped just about as soon as I had left it too late to go to the Stakes. Whatever: I swallowed my distress (and a magic hamburger from the Yass Rd Takeaway).